Barbara Lee, (b. July 16, 1946) is a United States Representative from California. She is a former staff member for Rep. Ron Dellums and was elected as a Democrat to the 105th Congress in a special election to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Rep. Dellums. Lee subsequently has been reelected five times.

In the 1970s Lee was a confidential aide to Huey Newton, the "Minister of Defense" of the Black Panther Party. [1] Lee served on the national committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), an offshoot of the old Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

On September 14 2001, three days after the 9/11 terror attacks, Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the resolution (S.J.Res. 23) which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives 420-1 [2] authorizing the President to use force in response. [3]